“You have my word,” Jothan directed his vow to Lady Ursell and the pitiful creature alike. “This curse is mine to end.”
He turned to head back to his chamber, where he would dress for the day and ruminate further on these matters.
Chapter 7
“You stood over me with your sword. I would have preferred you had killed me,” Delphas said when he returned to Jothan’s chamber. Tonight he wore the simple tunic Jothan had first seen him in, but without leggings or shoes, the waist cinched with a length of rope. It was the garb of a villager, not a squire. It Jothan all over again to see him reduced so, all thanks to the treachery of another. “It would have made things easier.”
“That I could not do, and well you know why.” Jothan swung his legs off the bed and walked toward Delphas. He stood before him, his hands clenched at his sides. “As for your death making things easier, that shall never be the case for me.”
Delphas’s stubborn expression faltered. His smooth forehead creased beneath his fringe of blond hair, now perfectly restored to its previous state. “It is kind of you to say so. But are you not disgusted by me?”
“Nay.” Tentatively Jothan raised one hand to stroke the worry from Delphas’s brow. “Even during the worst of it, I never felt that way.”
“I am relieved I did not hurt you. Though I retain a shadow of my normal self once I have transformed, my baser urges come close to the surface. I am more beast than man at times.”
“I was not afraid. I could see that you recognized me. You made no move against me.”
Delphas’s chin dropped to his chest as a fresh wave of sorrow overcame him. “I confess I found some relief in telling someone the truth at last. I deserve neither your pity nor your understanding, but I am grateful for both nonetheless.”
“You have carried a terrible burden these many years.” Jothan leaned forward, drawing Delphas closer. Their chests touched, and Delphas rested his cheek on Jothan’s shoulder. “I would never offer you pity, as you are too proud a warrior to accept it. I do, however, offer my assistance. Together, we will find a way to end this curse. We can travel to hell itself and back, if that is what it takes.”
“I fear it will take more than that, my lord. The witch’s magic was strong, her curse most potent. No sooner had she uttered her spell than a terrible sensation came over me and I fled, convinced that I, too, would soon die. ’Twas not until morn, and I found myself a monster, that I realized the full extent of her evil.”
Jothan considered his words. “Delphas…I must ask you one thing. Is it possible the witch still lives?”
Delphas stepped back from Jothan’s embrace, his eyes bright with dread. “I cannot fathom how. I saw my uncle’s dagger in her heart. Why do you ask such a question?”
“Because several times, I believe I have heard her laughter. It comes from within the castle, though I am unable to determine whence. Now tell me this—did you ever see her body interred, or laid to rest in any way?”
“I did not. When her curse first fell upon me, I fled, fearing I would be immolated like my uncle. My aunt lay on the floor, her life force draining from her along with her blood. When I returned the following evening, she was gone. I assumed the devil himself had carried her off, or what servants as remained at that time had taken her remains away. By then, everyone had deserted the castle for good, so there was no one left to ask.” He shook his head. “If her voice still echoes in these halls, then it must be her spirit, doomed to roam the place where she caused so many good men’s deaths. At least it affords me some small satisfaction to know that she has as little peace as I.”
“That is my point.” Jothan’s pulse quickened as an idea began to take shape in his mind. “Perhaps her curse, or spell, or whatever it may be, lives on because in some sense, she lives on as well. If she were to find her final rest, perhaps her powers would fade from this world once and for all.”
“’Tis a most intriguing hypothesis,” Delphas admitted. Jothan could tell from the catch in his voice that he was trying to restrain his optimism, no doubt fearful of a crushing disappointment. “There may well be merit in it.”
“We shall discover soon enough whether that is true. The sunrise remains many hours away. While my servants are asleep, you and I may search the castle without interference. If she is here, dead or alive, we shall find her before daybreak.”
“An excellent plan, my lord! We should start immediately!”
Delphas started to turn away, but Jothan’s hand around his wrist stopped him. “Not just yet. There is one thing I must do first.”
“And what is that?” Delphas asked, his grey eyes darkening with concern.
Jothan grinned and tugged him toward the bed. “I wish to convince you once more that you do not disgust me.”
A smile raised the corners of Delphas’s mouth. Eagerly Jothan kissed those softly curved lips, at the same time reaching for the rope belt around Delphas’s waist. Moments later he had pulled the tunic of Delphas’s head and shed his own.
“This time, ’tis my duty to give you pleasure,” Jothan said, positioning his shoulder between Delphas’s parted legs. “You will soon find that you are far more man than beast. On the other hand, a touch of the beast lives in me also—and at times it can be a most useful quality.”
He lowered his mouth, and Delphas moaned as Jothan proceeded to prove his assertion.
****
Later, dressed again and considerably buoyed in mood, the two ventured out into the darkened castle with torches.
“You must show me the exact spot where it happened,” Jothan said.
Delphas raised a brow. “Think you that after all these years, some clue may remain? It seems hard to credit.”
“We cannot know what we might uncover until we try.”
“’Twas in my lady aunt’s private bower that the confrontation took place. I confess I have not laid eyes on it in many years. She seldom invited anyone inside, but that night I accompanied my lord to confront her about her sorcery. My uncle thought that by killing her, he could put an end to the demons and spirits tormenting his people and felling our soldiers. At least he was partly correct about that.”
Jothan nodded, his face grim. “Tonight we do not need her invitation. Take me there.”
With a resigned sigh, Delphas gestured and bid Jothan follow him. They started off toward the north tower, but just before they reached the spiral staircase, Delphas turned to the right. He slipped into a small room Jothan had not noticed before, its entrance hidden in the space between a wall and a pillar.
“This is where she cast her spells,” Delphas said sadly, shining his torch around the confined space. Only few wall hangings, a single trunk, and a bed remained, all badly damaged by fire and the gnawing of rodents. “And this is where she ended her life, my uncle’s, and in a sense my own.”
“Do not speak so,” Jothan ordered. “You live, and you are strong. As long as we walk this earth on our own two legs, we need not surrender hope.”
“I shall try to keep that in mind,” Delphas agreed. “Even as a beast, ’tis undeniable that I walk on two legs.”
They set about examining the room carefully. After pushing aside the tapestries, pressing various stones on the wall and floor, they discovered nothing save a dark burn mark on the stone, which Delphas indicated as the place where his uncle had been killed. Next they pried open the trunk, which contained only a few musty lengths of unstitched cloth.
Finally Delphas shook his head and turned away. “We will find no help for me here.”
“I still believe she might have left this room somehow,” Jothan pressed. He stood above the spot where Delphas remembered her lying, stabbed and helpless, and tried to envision some method of escape. Since she would have been forced to crawl, he dropped to his hands and knees and surveyed the room from that vantage point. He imagined her husband’s charred remains on one side, and the bower’s narrow entrance on the other. To the right sat a small table and washbasin, lo
ng ago knocked from its place by rats and shattered on the floor. To the left was the bed, also in a sorry state after so many years of neglect. The space beneath the bed remained swathed in shadows, no doubt an ideal hiding place for vermin. Or…
“Delphas!” he jumped up, his hand instinctively brushing his sword hilt to make sure it hung from his belt at the ready. “Help me move this bed aside.”
Delphas stared at him as if he were mad, but moved into position without argument. Though the wooden bedframe seemed to weigh as much as an armored warhorse, they finally succeeded in pushing it across the room. There, in the center of the space the bed had covered, lay a section of discolored stone. The groove cut into it seemed exactly the right size to insert the tips of one’s fingers.
“As I suspected,” Jothan said, bending and fitting his hand into the slot. It required only the most minimal effort to dislodge the stone, which gave the illusion of thickness but was actually little heavier than a silver dinner platter. “A passage meant to provide egress for the lady in the event of disaster.”
“That makes a peculiar sort of sense,” Delphas said in wonder. “Many times my uncle confined her here, thinking to continue one of their arguments as his leisure, only to find her gone when he returned. He even set guards outside her door, to no avail. He began to believe she was using her sorcery to remove herself to another part of the castle when it suited her.”
“She may have practiced sorcery, but this method of removing oneself is available to anyone small enough to fit inside a tunnel.” Jothan slid the stone aside, revealing a crawl space from which a most fetid odor arose. Coughing and gagging, the two of them lifted their sleeves to cover their faces. “Given the state of her wounds, I would venture that your lady aunt did not complete her journey that final time. Perhaps she did not intend to, if she pulled the stone back into place.”
He shone his torch into the space and illuminated a perfect skeleton, scraps of a gold silk gown—perhaps the very one described by the steward Cuthbert—still clinging to the brittle bones. As the glow of the fire passed over it, the eyeless skull, still possessed of a full set of teeth, seemed to tilt and grin up at them. Jothan heard that hellish laughter once again, but this time he knew it echoed only in his mind.
****
Late that night, Jothan gathered his servants for a makeshift funeral service in the castle’s chapel, freshly swept and decorated for the occasion. He had told them nothing save that the remains of an unfortunate soul had been discovered in some rubble, and would at last be granted rest. Delphas, he had explained, had traveled back to the castle after many years of exile for the express purpose of discovering the fate of his lady aunt and granting her peace.
The service itself was as simple and homespun as a peasant’s garment, ending with Jothan and Delphas interring the fleshless bones beneath the floor and covering them with relics salvaged from the chapel. They tamped the stones back into place and stood looking down at the witch’s final resting spot while the servants gratefully hurried back to their pallets.
“Seems strange to see them so close, when I have spent so many days hiding from them,” Delphas said wistfully after they had gone.
“’Tis a good thing you did. Rulf’s eyes are faded, but I understand the lad has a sure hand with a slingshot,” Jothan said in an attempt to lighten their burden.
“A fine repayment that would have been, when my goal all along was to protect them. I suppose my first thought was even to guard them against you. That was why I challenged you on the drawbridge that first day.”
“Indeed? You could well have killed me, you know.”
“Perhaps not. You are a most impressive sight in armor, wielding your broadsword.” Delphas flashed him an admiring smile. “I do not remember everything that transpires when I am in my changed state, but I do remember the way you looked. I remember also how something about you made me trust you. You would not have gained entrance to the castle otherwise.”
“I am very glad we struck a truce that day,” Jothan said. He offered his hand.
“And what shall we do now?” Delphas slid his fingers through Jothan’s and met his eyes with a nervous gaze of his own.
“Now we must wait for the dawn,” Jothan said with a sigh.
Chapter 8
He found Delphas on the wall walk, as he’d known he would. He stood by the edge, gazing down at the dark moat below and the shadowy forest beyond.
“I considered hurling myself off here many times,” he said, “but I never did. I always wondered, what if there really were some way I could break the curse? That dream kept me going.”
“I’m glad it did,” said Jothan.
“Yes, but don’t you see that it’s much worse now? This might be my last chance. If it doesn’t work…” Delphas sighed and raised his eyes to the sky. Dawn was breaking, silvery tendrils streaking the darker greys. In the distance they saw the muted reddish blur of the rising sun. “Let’s just say that if it doesn’t work, it will be that much harder for me to know hope ever again.”
Jothan set his jaw in determination. “We did everything we could think of. If that isn’t enough, we’ll find another way. And if that doesn’t work, we’ll find yet another. I’ll never give up, Delphas. I will find a way to break this curse. You must hold on until that happens.”
“And meanwhile? You are content to have me transform into a hideous beast every morning at sunrise?”
Jothan stepped forward. He rested his hand on Delphas’s sleeve. “You could never be hideous to me. Even in your other form, I can look into your eyes and see you. I can see love.”
Delphas’s breath caught with emotion as he turned to gaze at Jothan. Slowly, he lifted a palm and covered the hand on his sleeve.
“I wish to taste your lips one last time before the sun rises,” he said. “’Twill be hard to wait until sundown otherwise.”
“I hope we shall not have to wait this time,” Jothan said. “’Tis my wish that we can spend the day in my bed—as two men, enjoying one another’s body in the ways only men can do.”
“That is my wish, too,” Delphas said. “You have no idea how desperately I want it to be so.”
They bent forward to embrace. Jothan felt the same thrill he always did as Delphas’s lips enveloped his and his sweet tongue skated over Jothan’s.
They were still kissing when a sudden burst of bright light signaled that the sun had risen. With a worried expression, Delphas broke free and stepped back. His soft pointed shoes whispered against the stones as he moved precariously closer to the base of the wall. A simple vaulting motion, Jothan knew, and he would plunge over it and down toward certain death upon the rocks in the moat. If he sprouted his gargoyle wings in time, he could veer away and save himself at the last moment. But if his intention were to end his torment before the transformation could finish taking place…
“You must always have hope,” he reminded him one last time, just in case things went horribly wrong. “And you must always remember how I love you, in whatever form your soul happens to take. As monsters or men, we must vow to protect and cherish each other.”
Delphas nodded, either too overcome with emotion to speak or seized with the first spasms of the change that would rob him of speech. Another blaze of intense light splashed the wall walk as the sun grew higher and larger. Jothan braced himself for the first gurgle of agony that would issue from Delphas’s expanding throat and swelling tongue.
Yet, as long as he waited, nothing transpired. The sky grew light, the air grew warmer, and the water in the moat began to sparkle. Still the two of them stood together as men—much like any other two men watching the sunrise.
Finally Jothan dared to smile.
“I believe we have achieved success,” he said.
A moment later, tears bathed the shoulder of his finely wrought tunic as Delphas held him close and wept with gratitude and relief. A sudden thought occurred to Jothan. Had the interring of the witch’s bones ended the curse, or had
it been his declaration of love for Delphas in any body, no matter how grotesque? Surely such love as he felt now had broken many a curse in the past, and most likely would do so many times again in the future.
In the end, what difference did it make? The important thing was that Delphas’s affliction was gone, and a beautiful morning awaited them.
“I believe we have an appointment in my chamber,” he said. Delphas raised his head from Jothan’s shoulder and spread his lips in the clearest, most genuine smile Jothan had ever seen on his face.
“Indeed we do. Lead the way, my lord.”
The Baron of Darkwood nodded and extended his hand.
The Baron's Gargoyle Page 5